Cadastres

The Czech lands and estates were already in the oldest times subject to taxation. The tax was calculated according to reports from the landlords about the number of peasants farming on their lands. This crude system created inequity in taxes, since it failed to differentiate beween valuable, highly productive land and more marginal land. Only lands held by subjects (rustical) were assessed; the lands of the nobility (dominical) were tax exempt. An increasing demand for money to cover state administration and the military provided the impulse to improve the tax system. The new system, founded on the cadastre, assessed taxes based more closely on the true value of a piece of land, determined by the type of crop grown and the real yield from the fields.